Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Hello,
Right now we are in Georgetown, Bahamas and are anchored off of Volleyball
Beach. Volleyball beach has, as its name
suggests, a volleyball court on the beach. The beach also has wild stingrays
that come up to you looking for a scratch. We found out the hard way that there was also glass in the water when our
friend, Tiger, stepped on some and cut up her heel. For those who have been waiting for the next installment,
here is the conclusion of Part I of The Curse of the Orange Sea Glass. It’s a good one you don’t want to miss.

Waking Up

We were heading due north 800 miles east of the Windward Islands, with Africa 2,000 miles off our
starboard. I was at the helm navigating
Skipchaser through a series of squalls. Through
the 40 knot wind that whipped my hair around, I heard a woman pleading with me,
"Eliza, wake up, oh Eliza, please wake up!"
I yelled down below to Desiree, "I'm about as awake as I could be,
Desiree!"
"Don't bother me, it's not my watch," Desiree yelled back. I suddenly felt very tired. My eyes started to droop and no matter how
hard I tried to keep them open, they just kept closing.
______________________________________________________________________________

My eyes flickered open in another world.
"Mom!" I yelled, "What am I doing here? Why aren't I on
Skipchaser?" I was in a hospital room with my mom who looked very
relieved.
"Oh, Honey, I don't know what a 'Skipchaser' is, but you passed out when
you were snorkeling and later slipped into a coma."
"I remember passing out while snorkeling, but I also remember waking up
and swimming to shore."
"Eliza, you didn't wake up. Not
until now, that is,"
"So you mean that it was all a dream, Skipchaser and the orange sea
glass?"
"I told you I don't know what a 'Skipchaser' is, but it was probably part
of a dream. The doctors said it was
common to have dreams while in a coma.
Here's something for you. It’s a
necklace that we made out of something that you had clutched in your hand.”
She uncurled her fingers to reveal a necklace that had, as its centerpiece, a
piece of sea glass that looked exactly like the sun.

Three weeks later I had been discharged from the hospital. I was searching for a book in The Unicorn
Bookstore. The old saleswomen introduced
herself as Mrs. Iguano and recommended a brown leather backed book named 'The
Curse of the Orange Sea Glass'.
"I noticed your necklace and I think it's time to pass it on." She
said, and with surprising strength for such an old lady, lunged at me. I
toppled over, but I quickly regained my balance. The old lady wasn't as quick as I was. Her sudden strength was gone. I had to help her back to her feet.
She handed me the book and said, "Please write your entry in here."
I tried to say “What? Who are you?” but it sounded more like this,
"Whaaaa? Reewhoo oo?"
"You haven't guessed who I am yet?" she said with a sly smile.
Then something amazing happened. Her
frail body started shaking very violently.
Her gray hair turned to white feathers and her musty shoal morphed into
brown feathers. She shrank to the size
of my hand and her lumpy nose turned into a sharp, pointy beak, in which was my
orange piece of sea glass. My voice
suddenly came back.
"Fiddlesticks!" I shouted.
Fiddlesticks or Mrs. Iguano chirped with
a smug laugh, "You now have the curse of the orange sea glass!"

Monday, April 16, 2012

From Culebra we went to Fajardo, Puerto Rico where we spent a day in a marina to receive mail, though I think the real reason was to have some ice cream. It is a big treat to have ice cream down here. We don't have a freezer on board and many local stores down here don't have refrigeration, let alone a freezer.

It took a 2 day passage to get to Dominican Republic.

We spent a wonderful week in Puerto Bahia Marina, in Samana, D.R. The marina was part of the Banister Hotel, one of the fancier resorts on the island. Staying at the marina unlocked all the goodies of staying at the resort. It had two infinity pools, one on the roof, one overlooking the bay, and many other huge pools. It also had a well stocked grocery store that had ice cream! But our favorite part was the resort game room. It had a foosball table, ping pong table, and a TV in it. The game room was looked after by a nice woman who spoke no English. By the end of the week she knew our favorite games. There were a few down sides though, the nice LOOKING showers that lacked hot water, and the pools that succeeded in turning my hair green. Not just your regular been-in-the-pool-too-long-

green but, all out bright green that lasted for weeks, as if I dyed it. Now Remi and Dad are calling me Yogurt, the spin off of Yoda, in the movie Spaceballs, who has green hair. We rented a car for three days and drove all over the peninsula.

We arrived in Turks & Caicos where there was another green-haired 11 year old cruising kid named Tiger, who left the marina a week before we did! It was obvious that she had been swimming in the same pool as me. Besides being a great new friend she gave me the hope that green hair fades after a while... a little bit. I hope that mine fades as well as hers does. We plan to meet up with her again in the Bahamas. Now we are in Provo, the tourist destination of the T&C. We haven't seen Jo Jo the dolphin yet, who supposedly brings lobsters to boats and plays with snorkelers and swimmers, but are hoping to see him. We met up with one of my good friends form home, Sadie, who we played with on the beach for quite a while. It just happened that she was visiting the Turks and Caicos the same time we were. How lucky am I?! The day before yesterday we crossed the Caicos bank, it was really cool. No land in sight but we anchored in 12 ft. of water. Amazing!

I'm still working on the next chapter of my story. I'll post it when I'm done.